The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) says it is exploring potential collaboration with Namibia as the nation prepares for its first offshore oil production by 2030.
This comes as significant oil and gas finds have been made in the Orange Basin since 2022, with major discoveries like Shell’s Enigma-1X and Galp’s Mopane this year alone. Experts believe these finds only hint at the vast potential of Namibia’s hydrocarbon basins.
OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais said the organisation is excited about a future partnership as Namibia is actively developing and appraising its recent offshore discoveries, with the potential to become Africa’s fourth-largest oil producer.
“My message is that OPEC stands ready to support Namibia in this exciting new chapter in this development. We would be happy to intensify cooperation with Namibia across a broad range of fronts. We are excited about a potential future partnership between OPEC and Namibia and encourage future investors to look at Namibia and the abundant potential there,” said Al Ghais.
Al Ghais further emphasised the crucial role Namibian oil will play in meeting Africa’s growing energy demands, especially with a projected population increase.
He stressed the importance of investment to unlock Namibia’s full potential, a priority OPEC shares.
“Namibian energy will be essential and the full potential of Namibia’s natural resources can only be realised with adequate levels of investment. This is a priority that OPEC shares,” he said.
OPEC’s Head of the Energy Studies Department Abderrezak Benyoucef said the global oil demand is on the rise, led by population growth and the expansion of various industries.
To meet this rising demand, Africa, particularly oil-producing countries such as Namibia, needs to boost its oil production capacity by over 3 million barrels per day.
“Global population is set to rise from 8 billion in 2022 to 9.5 billion in 2045, driven by non-OECD. We see that the working age and urbanisation will increase – which means we need more power and more energy. We see that oil will retain the largest share of the energy mix by 2045. Transportation will be led [by] oil demand increase followed by petrochemicals,” he said.
In February 2022, TotalEnergies announced a major discovery of light oil and associated gas in block 2913B, known as the Venus-1X site, in the Orange Basin.
The block, owned jointly by TotalEnergies as the block operator, QatarEnergy, Impact Oil and Gas, and the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR), is estimated to contain 3 to 5 billion barrels of oil.
In the same month, Shell announced its discovery of light oil and confirmed the presence of a working petroleum system at the Graff-1X well in PEL 39, also in the Orange Basin.
Owned jointly by Shell Namibia Upstream B.V. as the PEL operator, QatarEnergy and NAMCOR, the Graff-1X well holds an estimated 2.38 billion barrels of oil.
Following this, in April 2022 and March 2023, Shell and its partners announced additional significant oil discoveries at the La Rona-1 and Jonker-1X exploration wells in PEL39, with the latter potentially holding as much as 2.5 billion barrels of oil.
In January this year, Galp Energia, leading a consortium with NAMCOR and Custos, confirmed a second column of high-quality light oil in the Mopane well. Galp operates Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) 83 with an 80% interest, while NAMCOR holds 10%, and Custos Energy, half-owned by Sintana, has a 10% stake.
